Help for self-esteem and confidence

Self-esteem and confidence represents how you feel about yourself in the world. The health of it can affect the relationships that we have and our everyday lives in many ways.

Self-confidence might be thought of as how we see our achievements and self – esteem as the opinion that we hold of ourselves. It is easy to see how life events and life conditioning can bend and mould these two important mechanisms. If our self-esteem is driven by guilt and shame then we are easily open to criticism of others and perhaps more easily manipulated by their opinion (however well meaning).

Self-esteem and self-confidence, go hand-in-hand as they represents our view of our self in the world, yet, it is possible for people to have more of one than the other. Issues generated by our esteem and confidence go to the very heart of our lives. Often the issues are so deep we dare not discuss them:

Believing we are inadequate or worthless

Doubting or questioning our skills

Social withdrawal

Lack of social skills and self confidence

Being pessimistic and negative about yourself

Self-neglect and worrying whether you have treated others badly

Inability to accept compliments and apologising frequently

Avoiding eye contact

Constantly seeking approval from others

Research has found that people with genuine low self-esteem tend to treat themselves badly. Healthy self-esteem needs to emerge gradually, not instantaneously. Clients with low self-esteem tend to be very sure of themselves, which can be a problem. This manifests in their conviction that they are worthless or inadequate.

At Considerate Counselling we have helped many people find their confidence and build their self-esteem so that they can take control of their lives and start to enjoy them to the full